A divided School Board last Thursday backed a 22% cut in the anticipated future cost of a renovation/expansion project at Thomas Jefferson Middle School, but left the door open to more discussion.
The 3-1 vote, with one abstention, reduces the cost estimate to $130 million, from an initial $168 million proposed by Superintendent Francisco Durán and staff.
Superintendent Francisco Durán has laid out a quarter-billion-dollar plan to renovate and expand two middle schools.
Downplaying concerns that the projects could crowd out needed improvements at other buildings, Durán on Thursday night described plans for Thomas Jefferson Middle School and Swanson Middle School. They include the following.
For a second consecutive week, an Arlington Public Schools alum will be making an appearance on “Jeopardy!”
Lydia Cawley, a 2016 graduate of Washington-Lee High School (now Washington-Liberty High School), will be one of three contestants competing on the trivia show on Thursday night.
School Board members have tasked Superintendent Francisco Durán and staff to come back in the spring with options for renovations to two aging middle schools.
Whether there will be enough money in the future to fund major upgrades to Thomas Jefferson and Swanson middle schools remains an open question, but Board members said they are committed to finding ways to make improvements.
The new home of the Arlington Career Center is still on track to be ready for the start of the 2026-27 school year, but the margin of error is getting increasingly narrow.
School Board members are preparing to discuss a staff request to appropriate $670,000 in contingency funds on Thursday, aiming to meet the most recent challenges for the new Grace Hopper Center at 816 S. Walter Reed Drive.
A teenage girl suffered significant injuries after being struck by a driver while on her way to school.
The crash happened around 7:15 a.m. this morning (Friday) at the intersection of N. Jefferson Street and 15th Street N., a few blocks from Swanson Middle School, in the Westover area.
A middle school student is facing charges after police say he threatened another student with a knife.
Police were dispatched to Swanson Middle School in the Westover area around lunchtime Tuesday for a report of a 14-year-old student making threats. They subsequently seized two knives that had been brought into the school.
The speed camera on Lorcom Lane has relocated to another school zone.
The camera installed in January on the 4100 block of Lorcom Lane, near Dorothy Hamm Middle School, has moved to the northbound 1100 block of Patrick Henry Drive near Swanson Middle School in Westover Village.
Four Arlington schools will be distributing cellphone storage pouches to students this year as part of an effort to restrict mobile phone use on campus.
The pilot program will kick off in mid-September at Wakefield High School, H-B Woodlawn (middle school only), Swanson Middle School and Thomas Jefferson Middle School, APS announced in an email to parents Thursday.
Swanson Middle School was briefly evacuated this morning due to a structure fire near the school.
A shed behind a house on the 1100 block of N. Lexington Street caught fire and was fully engulfed by the time firefighters arrived, shortly before 9 a.m.
Swanson Middle School was put in “secure the school” mode this morning (Friday) due to a threat.
Initial reports suggest the school’s office received a shooting threat via email. Police responded to investigate around 10 a.m. and the security status was lifted about an hour and a half later.
(Updated at 1 p.m.) Someone phoned in a bomb threat at Swanson Middle School this morning.
The caller claimed that bombs were planted in the middle school, in the Westover area. The school was quickly placed in lockdown, an Arlington Public Schools spokesman confirmed to ARLnow.
